My 15 Year Old Drives! and some other thoughts...

In more evidence that I am growing older by the minute, I now have another child who can legally drive on the streets of Illinois. And today I got my first taste of driving with Courtney on the real roads. Two things - first, let me just say that for a young lady who has racked up a grand total of about an hour of driving time, she did really quite well. Second, I was so glad that we were coming home from Church. I figured that, first of all, we would be watched over since we had just gotten religion. Secondly, said helping of religion would prevent me from blurting out swear words should the need arise. I'm pleased to say that it seemed to work. It was a swear-free ride home from Church. We got through it without even a panicked scream - from me, Courtney, or Shari (who wisely selected a seat in the back of the mini-van). Sarah and Parker completely wussed out, refusing to take this maiden journey with their sister, and rode home with our neighbors. I should have made them walk home for not supporting her. It's in the high 20's today. They would have been fine.

Aside from the normal first time driver thing of staying as close to the shoulder as humanly possible and thinking that the only way to get the brakes to work is to slam on them with both feet (or at least that's what it felt like on several occasions), she did a really good job. Courtney is now driving! Illinois lets 'em start driving at 15 years old - can you stand that?! I'm still trying to figure that all out. Oh well...game on, as they say.

Good day at Church. Another great discussion in Sunday School about the role and power of the Book of Mormon. Also got the year planned out for Activities Committee. We'll roll the plans next week to the Ward Council. It could all go down in flames at that point. We'll see how it goes.

Looking forward to a quiet rest of the Sabbath. Now that "The Amazing Race" is off until the next season, I can watch "The Simpsons" live and tonight is a new episode. That will distract me from the ongoing political circus that rages. I've been reading several articles, both online and print, today about the Obama win (nice and strong!) in South Carolina on Saturday. Suffice to say, She Who Cannot Be Named got served. So much for the strategy of trotting out your philandering spouse as your attack dog. It will be interesting to see how the Wonder Twins (seriously, the "two for one" approach wasn't exactly a ringing success from 1992 to 2000 - do we really need to revisit it?) now retrench and go after the the Super Tuesday states. And then there's the Republican train wreck. How long before Giuliani bows out? Hopefully after the spanking he'll take in Florida, he will bow out and go back to pulling down six figures for each and every 40 minute speech he gives to loaded conventioneers dining on dry chicken. And then there's Mitt. I found a political cartoon drawn by Jimmy Marguiles of "The Record," a New Jersey paper, that pretty much nails what we''ll get with him should his stroll toward the White House prove successful:
It's not nasty, it's not slamming the religious faith that we share, it's just telling it like it is. All it needs is a little image of Flipper the Dolphin.